News

The APC “End violence: Women’s rights and safety online” project is changing women’s lives. We wanted to offer a closer, more personal look at individual women whose lives have been significantly impacted by the initiative. This week, we share the story of Britney Fae Corpuz, a transwoman activist and member of Gender and Development Advocates Filipinas.

That’s what we’re asking Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Promote transparency and safe spaces. Demand that social media take a stand. Join our campaign beginning 21 July to demand answers and action! Take back the tech!

APC denounces the arrests of 23 protestors and human rights defenders in Egypt, including the arrest of Yara Sallam, long-time APC partner and human rights advocate. Since the introduction of the protest law in November, there have been a string of actions aimed at silencing dissent in Egypt. APC fully supports the call from Nazra for Feminist Studies to release the human rights defenders and comply with international standards on freedom of assembly.

On 21 June 2014, eight women human rights defenders were arrested for protesting peacefully against the Protest and Public Assembly Law in Heliopolis, Cairo, after being dispersed by the police using tear gas and bird shots. One detainee, Yara Sallam, is a long time APC partner.

Avri Doria is the first winner of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Multistakeholder Ethos Award Program. “The evaluation panel selected her from 22 nominees as the one who best demonstrated the spirit of collaboration as shown through empathy and a sincere desire to engage with people from other backgrounds, cultures and interests.”

APC strongly condemns the conviction of Egyptian activist and APC partner Alaa Abd El Fattah, sentenced on 11 June 2014 to 15 years in prison for organising a protest. He was convicted in absentia, along with 24 other protestors. We call on the Egyptian government to release the prisoners and repeal the draconian protest law introduced in November 2013. We call on the APC community to join the campaign to #FreeAlaa.

“One year after the Snowden revelations, the Human Rights Council must recognise that trust in the internet is conditional on respect for the rights to freedom of expression and privacy, regardless of users’ nationality or location”, says a joint statement supported by APC and delivered today in Geneva.

APC member Bytes for All Pakistan has just released the first study on hate speech online in the country. More than 92% of Pakistani users encountered hate speech online, and more than 51% identified themselves as targets of such speech, a survey included in the study revealed. Read more about the issue from both a quantitative and qualitative perspective.

BARCELONA AND NEW YORK10 June 2014
(Deniz Duru Aydin (Access) and Deborah Brown and Shawna Finnegan (APC) for APC and Access)

The 26th session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) is taking place in Geneva from 10 to 27 June. Information on the internet-related human rights issues that will be addressed there are provided by APC and Access in this briefing note.

APC member Bytes for All Pakistan has just released the first study on hate speech online in the country. More than 92% of Pakistani users encountered hate speech online, and more than 51% identified themselves as targets of such speech, a survey included in the study revealed. Read more about the issue from both a quantitative and qualitative perspective.

A new report by the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Mutuma Ruteere, was released in late May. APC and some of our members were part of the multi-stakeholder consultation process that led to the preparation of this report.

The suspense is over! Celebration of free and open source software initiatives kicks off in Barcelona. A challenging evaluation process was carried out by our honourable jury: Nnenna Nwakanma, Pilar Saenz, Ragib Hasan and Wojtek Bogusz. Meet the winners!

APC’s Take Back the Tech! campaign was recognised with an honorary mention in the 2014 Prix Ars Electronica under the “Digital Communities” category. This category focuses on the wide-ranging social and artistic impact of internet technology and sheds light on the political and artistic potential of digital and networked systems.

Digital migration will allow better-quality TV images, has the potential to enable greater programming diversity, and will increase coverage. At the same time, users will have to purchase new equipment, sometimes to watch the same content they are already watching. Learn more about digital migration with this infographic.

Internet intermediaries (ISPs, content providers, infrastructure providers) are increasingly being held liable for the content circulated by users. Two years after conducting research on the issue in Uganda in a project coordinated by APC, Lillian Nalwoga talked to APCNews about the latest developments in the country, where a recent anti-pornography law can go as far as sending intermediaries to prison.

Although internet intermediaries in South Africa are fairly protected against liability for their users’ content or behaviour on their platforms and networks, this comes with some rules that they have to abide by. Two years after the publication of an APC research report on intermediary liability in South Africa, APCNews talked to researchers Alex Comninos and Andrew Rens about the current situation in the country.

With a new regime in Kenya, the fate of internet intermediaries is uncertain. Two years after the publication of an APC research report on the issue, Grace Githaiga talked to APCNews on the latest developments in the country.

What do we mean by internet intermediary liability? Are social networking sites and search engines considered internet intermediaries? Do legal measures affecting intermediaries have an impact on users’ rights? Find out more in these FAQs.

In this editorial for a special edition of APCNews we look at the role of governments and the impact of regulations that hold internet intermediaries liable for content uploaded or circulated by users. We argue that protecting intermediaries is an important step for having a free and open internet and for promoting the development of regional content, and stress the importance of explicitly addressing the impact of current regulations on women and women’s rights defenders.

While strong constitutional guarantees exist for freedom of expression in South Africa, including internet content, the effectiveness of these guarantees has been gradually reduced by an array of laws that have progressively chipped away at internet freedom, concludes a recent report by APC.